Editor -- So, now we're being told President Bush won't address the nation on his decision regarding Iraq until after the new year. Is he just stalling, hoping most people will forget the legitimate work done by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group? Is he searching for someone who will tell him things are going well in Iraq, and he hasn't terribly mismanaged the whole mess? Or is he just plain stalling and will eventually just find new words to say "stay the course"!

Regardless, I find it sad he didn't spend this much time, seek these many different sources of information and opinions before he made the decision to pre-emptively invade Iraq. If he had, just think how history would have been changed -- and how many lives would have been saved.

PETER MANDELL

San Francisco

Editor -- The article concerning the military's assessment of the war in Iraq stated that President Bush will give a major address on "a new way forward." In anticipating this message, I can't help thinking of a quip by the late Don Sherwood, the 1950s and '60s "World's Greatest Disc Jockey."

Whether you are a coffee-drinker, or a war critic, you can certainly relate to it. "After you've taken a mouthful of scalding hot coffee, whatever you do next is wrong."

JERRY WEST

Half Moon Bay

Appetites and the globe

Editor -- Debra J. Saunders' Dec. 12 column, "The cows missed 'the movie,' " sites a U.N. report that says that livestock is responsible for 18 percent of global greenhouse gases. Reducing the number of livestock, and reducing the effects of the livestock's greenhouse gases is an important part of combatting global warming. The number of livestock is another way humans have contributed to global warming.

Everyone should reduce the amount of meat that they consume by half, if not more. I am not saying everyone should be a vegetarian. My wife is a vegetarian, but I am not, and I enjoy eating meat once or twice a week. Less meat eaten means less livestock raised.

Everything needs to be looked at in terms of reducing global warming; energy consuming products, people and animals. So, thank you, Debra, for bringing to our attention, that human's appetite for eating so much meat is contributing to global warming.

DAVID EICHAR

Sonoma

Arnold's health-care fix

Editor -- Jennifer Nelson's Dec. 8 Open Forum piece asks, "Can Arnold fix health care?" If we study changes Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has wrought so far, we find out that he has implemented a policy that restricts injured workers to two years of temporary disability.

The insurance companies use that benchmark to delay and deny diagnostic testing and treatment until the two years has passed, then cut off the injured worker on the grounds that the allocated two years has passed. This example of an Arnold-innovation is what the rest of us can expect if he has his way in making reforms.

The Division of Workers Compensation is embroiled in countless disputes on dishonest utilization review, whereby insurance companies and their cooperative utilization review companies contrive reasons to deny care to injured workers, care that has been prescribed by treating doctors.

This governor's idea of fixing workers' compensation is to step on the necks of injured workers. The next neck he steps on will be everybody else's.

Editor -- Wendell Cox's bizarre attack on "smart growth" (Open Forum, "Smart growth not so smart?," Dec. 11) falls flat when it stumbles over the facts. If it were true, it would make sense for places with better urban planning to have higher home prices: they are more desirable places to live.

Portland, San Francisco and San Diego are all attractive, vibrant cities surrounded by open space that residents can get out and enjoy.

But in fact, none of several studies on the subject has found that growth management drives up home prices. A Cal State Sacramento study last year found that areas with growth-management policies have slightly lower home prices.

We do need homes people can afford and we need to build them in a way that doesn't worsen traffic and lengthen commutes. This region will be home to an additional million people by 2020.

We need to accommodate that growth while protecting the Bay Area's quality of life. Cities are starting to do that by directing development away from open space, revitalizing downtowns and creating affordable homes near transit.

Planning well for growth will make the Bay Area an even better place to live. Now that's smart.

ELIZABETH STAMPE

Communications Director

Greenbelt Alliance

San Francisco

Molly Ivins

Editor -- I saw the notice in Monday's paper that Molly Ivins is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Ivins is one of my heroes and her words have informed, amused and comforted me over the years. I know I am one of many who sends warm wishes and prayers her way.

MARILYN HEALY

San Francisco

The Christians as the lions

Editor -- I was shocked to read the Dec. 12 story (" 'Convert or die' game divides Christians") about the "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game. I am appalled at this cruel video game which teaches that the job of Christian people is to convert other people or kill them. The premise of "Left Behind" contradicts everything that I know about Jesus and God.

Religion is not a manipulative tool to be used to separate us from each other and the common divinity we all share. Jesus taught compassion and love, not coercion and hatred. As someone who works for an organization that promotes the health of women and children, I especially worry about the effects of this violent video game on the children in our communities. I hope Wal-Mart will have the common sense and common decency to pull this from store shelves.

Editor -- Lovely. Now when I send my kids to play at the home of a new friend, I not only have to make sure there are no firearms in the house, but also no Christian-jihadist electronic mayhem for entertainment.

I especially like the quote from the Left Behind Games president, who clarifies that "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" is a pacifist game because players lose "spirit points" for gunning down nonbelievers whom they fail to convert. "Happily, players can earn spirit points by having their characters pray." So, that's what passes for pacifism today on the Christian Right? They must be green with envy when they think of the Taliban: "Oh, to be able to honor God by murdering everyone who sees things differently, and not suffer the legal consequences imposed by a secular government of laws."

Well, the people you mowed down were doomed to burn in hell anyway -- right, Osama?